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The Battle of GylHord Court House 

And the Preservation of That 
Historic Field 



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In piirsuanct' of tlie dt^teruiiiiutioM of the Britisli (iovt?rn- 
inent, in 1779, to transfer the seat of active liostilities from 
the Northern to the Southern Department, Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, Oammander-in-Ohief of the English forces in America, • 
sailed Southward from New York, invested Charleston, S. 
C, and in May, 1780, captured the city with practically the 
whole Southern Army, then under General Lincoln. The 
British plan of the campaign was to capture South and 
North Carolina and if possible, Virgina, and hold these at 
least, as time and the fortunes of war in the future might 
dictate. Charleston having fallen, Clinton sailed in June 
for New York and left Lord Cornwallis supplied with all 
they deemed necessary for the completion of the work. In 
August, 1780, Cornwallis gained at Camden, S, C, an over- 
whelming victory over General Gates, leaving the depart- 
ment destitute of troops, except 700 beaten veterans and 
the militia of North Carolina and Virginia, yet to be raised. 
The late General Henry V. Boynton, in an address deliver- 
ed at Guilford Battle Ground on July 4, 1900, says : 

''The enemy was resting along the southern border of 
this State, awaiting the ripening of the crop to advance and 
subdue it. North Carolina had only her militia with which 
to resist invasion. Along her southern border the sky was 
black as midnight in a tropical storm. Did North Carolina 
falter? Let King's Mountain answer, let Cowpens testify, 
let Guilford Battle Field respond." 

The heroism of the actors in the Battle of King's Moun- 
tain is unsurpassed in the annals of militia in the time of 
war. The moral effect of the battle was immense. It 
quelled the Tory spirit of the country and inspired the 
dejected Whigs. It was, however, a battle between militia, 
l)rave and heroic as they were, and its material advantage 
to the country was small. Colonel Furgeson was, 1 believe, 
the only Briton on the field, accompanied by 150 to 200 
New York provincials, who were regulars, and the re- 
mainder of his force, about a thousand men, consisted 
of Tories. King's Mountain was fought Octol)er 7, 3780. 
Even the battle of Cowpens, fought January 17, 1781, 
in wliich (500 of the finest of English Regulars were 



killed or captured, seemed only to Iiave aroused Corn- 
u^allis to the proper prosecution of the original and 
all-important plan of the eampaigii. He at (.-e drove 
(3rreene from Charlotte 20('> miles across the State of North 
Carolina, and across the Dan Kiver into Virginia, with 
tierce and determined activity. Greene, unable to meet 
him at the time, effected his escape at Irwin's and 
Boyd's Mills, seventy miles east of Guilford Court House, 
on the 15th of February, 1781. Cornwallis reached the 
southern bank of the vStream on the same day. Unable to 
cross, Cornwallis fell back to Hillsboro, N. C, fifty miles 
southward, remained there till the 26th, and then marched 
westward to Guilford county, reported to contain much food 
and provender for the support of an army. Having thrown 
cavalry and light infantry across the river previously, 
Greene re-crossed with his command into North Carolina on 
the 23d and, holding this between the British army and the 
river, proceeded westward a little north of, and in the rear 
of Cornwallis. Having been out-generaled by Greene in 
the recent long retreat, Cornwallis deliberately awaited 
Greene's choice of time and place for the battle w^hich both 
knew must come off. Greene, fiaving received expected 
•reinforcements, advanced to Guilford Court House on the 
14th of March, 1781. On the 15th occurred the battle of 
Guilford Court House, This was fought by the generals in 
command of the respective forces — British and American — 
numbering at the least ten thousand men, and including 
the flower of the British army in America. The result of 
this battle was the immediate and utter abandonment 
by the British general of the original piu'pose of the cam- 
paign, to-wit: the subjugation of South and North Carolina 
and Virginia; and the restoration by General Greene to the 
Union of South Carolina and Georgia, both of which had 
been over-run and garrisoned. From Guilford Court House, 
Cornwallis sought safety under the guns of his ships at Wil- 
mington and the British historian, Tarleton, says: Though 
urged to come out of his defences at Wilmington and again 
engage Greene, alleging that Greene might entangle him 
among the rivers of South Carolina and destroy his com- 
mand, Cornwallis deliberately allowed Greene to pass him, 
marching scnithward, unopposed — to destroy in detail his out- 



post and garrisons in South Carolina and restore that State 
and Georgia to the Union. In April, Cornwallis, unopposed, 
marched northward across North Carolina into Virginia. 
Here he was unable to effect, or at least to carry out an- 
other plan of co-operation with Clinton, and Yorktown fol- 
lowed. The seeds of the surrender at Yorktown and of the 
bitter quarrel between Cornwallis and Clinton soon follow- 
ing, were sown chiefly at Guilford Court House. These are 
the fruits of the Battle of Guilford Court House. The one 
fact that Greene fell back eighteen miles northward to a 
fortified camp and left Cornwallis in possession of the field 
on the 15th obscured and for years, continued to obscure the 
true character of this most important American victory. 
Greene had written Governor Jefferson that he would de- 
liver battle when his own judgment approved and not be- 
fore — that he should fight it with militia, preserving his 
regulars, all he could expect to get and thus drive Corn- 
wallis from North Carolina. All this he did. Stedman, 
the British historian then present, states that immediately 
after the withdrawal of Greene's Regulars, his third line, 
''in good order," Cornwallis ordered a pursuit, which order 
was speedily countermanded on his better information of 
the true condition of affairs. There was no pursuit. From 
a point far south of the battle-field Greene wrote on the 
i30th the following: 

''Greene's Headquarters, Ramsey's, 
"Deep River, March 30, 1781. 

"I wrote you the 28d instant from Buffalo Creek (South 
Gnilford), since which time we have been in pursuit of the 
enemy with the deteri'nination to bring them into action 

again. On the 27th we arrived at Ridgen's Ford, miles 

above this, and found the enemy then lay at Ramsey's. 
Our army was put in motion without loss of time, but we 
found the enemy had crossed some hours before our arrival 
and with such precipitation that they had left their dead 
unburied upon the ground-" 

Tarleton says: "The British obtained information that 
General Greene's army had reached Buffalo Creek, south- 
ward of Guilford Court House. The day before the King's 
troops arrived at Ramsey's, the Americans insulted the 



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Yagers in their eucampment. The Koyalists remained a 
few days at Kamsey's for the benefit of the wounded and t(» 
complete a bridge over Deep River, when the light troops 
of the Americans again disturbed the pickets. The British 
crossed the river and the same day General Greene reached 
Ramsey's with the intention to attack them. The halt of 
the King's troops at that place nearly occasioned an action 
which would not probably have been advantageous to the 
royal forces on account of the position and the dishearten- 
ing circumstance of their being encumbered with so many 
wounded officers and men in the action at Guilford." 

From Wilmington on the tenth of April Oornwallis wrote 
Clinton in New York and in a letter, not an official re- 
port, that the ""victory at Guilford, though one of the 
bloodiest of the war, was very complete." Greene, he 
said, never came within reach after the battle nor fired 
a gun. We would ask Why? If Tarleton and Greene 
are to be believed and as the relative position of the 
two armies and their ifiovements prove, it was because 
Greene could not catch him. Clinton wrote Oornwallis on 
the thirteenth of April to come to Virginia and bring part 
of his troops, supposing that Greene had crossed the Roanoke 
and had fled to Virginia. On the twenty-third, before get- 
ting Clinton's letter of the thirteenth, Oornwallis wrote 
Clinton of his " great apprehension because of Greene's 
movements to South Carolina " and of his " anxiety " over 
the situation there ; and adds that he is under the necessity 
of adopting this " hazardous enterprise (of leaving Wilming- 
ton for Virginia) at once "hastily and with the appearance 
of precpitation as I find * * that the return of General 
Greene, with or without success, would put a junction witli 
Phillips in Virginia out of my power." He had stated to 
Clinton concerning his deserting to his fate Lord Rawdon at 
Camden, exposed to Greene, that he had sent Rawdon mes- 
sages to the effect that Greene was approaching him, and 
declared his own departure from Cross Creek for Wil- 
mington a necessity. " I could not remain at Wilmington 
lest Gen. Greene should succeed against Lord Rawdon and 
by returning to North Carolina, have it in his power to 
cut off every means of saving my small corps, except that 



disgraceful one of an embarkation with the loss of the cav- 
alry and every horse in the army." 

Tliat the battle of Guilford was a momentous disaster, 
to Oornwallis and the Brittish cause the criticism of Clinton 
and reply thereto of Oornwallis establish beyond cavil.; 
(Read Clinton's Narrative and Cornwallis' Reply — 1783.) 

The Guilford Battle Ground Company is an association 
of patriotic gentlemen, incorporated and chartered by the 
Legislature of North Carolina in 1887. Its purpose is "The 
preservation, reclamation and adornment of the Battle Field 
of Guilford Court House." Such was the progress made by 
individual efforts and subscriptions from $1.00 upwards, the 
State Legislature now and for some years past, has exempt-- 
ed the Association from taxation and makes it an annual 
approprirtion of several hundred dollars. 

The Association owes not one dollar. The beautiful 
park itself contains about one hundred acres of Piedmont 
hill and vale, fairly improved and adorned as to its groves 
and meadows and abundant waters w4th canopied founts, 
dams, grass plots, buildings, museum and twenty-five monu- 
ments, many with elegant bronze tablets and four crowned 
with statuary. The title to these grounds has been examin- 
ed, approved, paid for and the deeds recorded. It lies in 
the direct line of travel from New York to New Orleans 
and is traversed by the great Southern Railway. It is im- 
bedded in the hearts of North Carolinians, and citizens of 
other States, many, many of whose progenities fought here. 
It is fostered by the State's Legislature, by individuals and 
by the several railroads centering here to th« full extenf 
allowed by law. The thrifty and rapidly growing City of 
Greensboro, in whose suburbs it lies, annually affords the 
country, on July 4th, a grand outing upon the grounds, 
where tlie living and dead speakers of the land address the 
people, and where all are made happier men and better, 
because wiser, citizens of the republic. 

The Fayetteville (N. 0.) Observer, a journal of the 
liighest respectability, recently published in its columns 
the following: 

"The story of this association and its successful work, 
reads like a romance, when we consider that it has its being 



and has done its work in the liitherto })arren, historical soil 
of North Carolina." 

On Januarj'^ 4, J 903, the Hon, Hugh Hastings, State 
historian of the State of New York, wrote : 

""I feel that you deserve the sympathy and encourage- 
ment of all patriots in your efforts, etc-''' 

In the Washington Post of July , 1908, we have 

tliis language from the pen of General V. Boynton : 

'■''The vast body of the Revolutionary patriots in the 
North should take notice of this North Carolina work, * * * 
a field preserved and paid for, with its history collected and 
preserved on tablets and monuments. Those who have 
brought it to success are at the sunset of life. It would be 
in every sense fitting if the National Government should 
receive this finished work of patriotism (freely tendered) 
and provide for its future care." 

JOSEPH M. MOREHEAD. 

President Guilford Battle Ground Company. 
Greensboro, N. C, March 5, 1906. 

We have no salaried ofiicers ; pay no dividends; exact 
no gate fees ; have raised with great labor and expended 
here forty thousand dollars at least, and now tender freely 
our property to the National Government. 

We ask that our proffer be accepted or that the Senate 
Bill now before the House to erect a monument to General 
Greene for $25,000 be adopted. In view of the large amoujits 
voted elsewhere over the land, we think our labors and ex- 
penditures considered, we ought not to be cut off" with the 
one thousand dollars previously voted us. A wise and just 
public policy encourages diligence and liberality in patri- 
otic endeavor. 



President Guilford Battle Ground Co. 
Greensboro, N. C, June 11, 1906. 



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